Friday 56 & Book Beginnings: My dear Wormwood ...


My dear Wormwood, I note what you say about guiding your patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend.
- p. 23 (the beginning),  The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

I divide the causes of human laughter into Joy, Fun, the Joke Proper, and Flippancy. You will see the first among friends and lovers reunited on the eve of a holiday. Among adults some pretext of the Jokes is provide, but the facility with which the smallest witticisms produce laughter as such a time shows that they are not the real cause. What the real cause is we do not know.

That's not my copy of the book - mine is ratty and old and was saved from the curb. But I want that copy! It's time for a re-read! It's been years since I've cracked this one open!



© 2025 guiltless readingMaira Gall